1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic card and, more particularly, to an electronic card capable of changing communication functionality of a coupled electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronics technology has known a rapid, spectacular development leading to an increasing use of communication products such as telephones, fax machines, cellular phones, etc. Recently, there is a trend of developing small communication products which are connectable to computers for adding communication functionalities thereto. Currently, there is an electronic card having communication capability (e.g., modem card or GSM/GPRS-Global System for Mobile/General Packet Radio Service-card available). The electronic card can provide a dial-up capability to a coupled PDA or enable the coupled PDA to operate as a cellular phone. As such, a portable device such as PDA coupled to the electronic card is able to possess additional communication features.
It is understood that the telephone, fax machine, or cellular phone can operate independently. But the modem card or GSM/GPRS card has to couple to an independently operable device such as PDA or notebook computer prior to normally operating because it is a peripheral based device. However, the electronic card, as stated above, already has a communication capability. Hence, a subject of adding more communication functions to the electronic card becomes important in consideration that the hardware resources can be utilized completely.
The object of the present invention is to provide an electronic card capable of changing communication functionality of a coupled electronic device so as to fully utilize the communication capability of the electronic card thereby achieving the purpose of using minimum hardware resource to provide maximum communication functionality.
To achieve the above and other objects, the electronic card in accordance with the present invention includes: a removable interface for being inserted into an electronic device and coupling to an interface bus, the removable interface having at least a card detection pin which is set at a first state or a second state based on the coupled electronic device; a functional module for providing a communication functionality via an access bus or a specific application bus based on whether the card detection pin is at the first state or the second state; a bridge for bridging and converting signals of the interface bus on the removable interface into signals of the access bus or the specific application bus, or bridging and converting the signals of the access bus or the specific application bus into the interface bus signals on the removable interface; and a multiplexer device for selecting signals of the access bus or signals of the specific application bus based on whether the card detection pin is at the first state or the second state for being switched to the interface bus.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.